Iron Maiden's Ed Force One fully repaired with two £2.8million engines
It will rejoin the band this afternoon
Iron Maiden’s plane Ed Force One has been fully repaired following the collision at Chile’s Santiago International Airport on Saturday 12th March.
The colossal plane jet was being towed in for refuelling when it collided with a tow truck causing extensive damage to two engines and the undercarriage.
Air Atlanta, who lease the plane to Maiden, had two enormous £2.8million Boeing engines flown 12,000 miles from Luxembourg to Santiago so the extensive work could take place.
The monumental repair job took less than 10 days in total and involved painstaking organisation work getting components, parts, tools and technical crew to South America as soon as possible.
Ed Force One will now rejoin Maiden at Brasília International Airport this afternoon (22nd March) ahead of the band’s appearance at the Nilson Nelson Arena.
Pilot and Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson said: “The speed and thoroughness of this incredibly complex operation was stunning and we are so very pleased to get our plane back!
“We would like to thank Air Atlanta and their terrific rescue team for a fantastic effort in achieving this in the time they did, and to Boeing, LAN Chile. ACS and Rock-It Cargo for all their invaluable support.
“We are sorry though for our fans in Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Rio and Belo Horizonte who missed out seeing the plane, but we hope they enjoyed the concerts as much as we did.”
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